Pro-wresting, it is a real sport

Jazmine Gordon, jgordon@lmcexperience.com

I have been a professional wrestling fan since I was born. It’s always satisfying to watch World Wrestling Entertainment and Impact Wrestling, or discover other wrestling promotions such as Ring of Honor Wrestling or Wrestle-1.

Professional wrestling has been around for over 100 years, and it manages to overpower popular TV shows and other sports with ratings of 3.2. Somehow pro wrestling is ousted because it is “fake,” so it is not considered a sport. But if wrestlers are athletes, isn’t that a contradiction since pro wrestling deals with competition like other sports, shouldn’t it be considered as a sport?

According to an article on dearsportsfan.com, wrestling “is fake but not as many know that behind the veneer of unreality, it can be all too real for the wrestlers.”

Despite pro-wrestling being unrealistic, the athletes performing can get injured just like athletes who play basketball, football, and baseball. Yes it is seen as entertainment but the wrestlers that perform and could get hurt. Whether their characters are a face (good) or a heel (bad), they perform moves such as the Boston Crab or a Sleeper Hold to keep the audience engaged.

This topic is still being widely debated about. With today’s definition of professional wrestling, it’s hard to make it seem real, and categorize it as a sport. We see wrestlers in reality shows such as “Total Divas” and “The Amazing Race” so it seems celebrity-based. People should know that wrestlers could get killed while practicing certain stunts.

On May 23,1999, Owen “The Blue Blazer” Hart (Bret “The Hitman” Hart’s younger brother) died during a Pay-Per-View event by falling from “90 feet and hit his head in front of 16,000 fans” during his introduction. CNN described it as “a stunt he had performed there” and the WWF(Now WWE) was “saddened by the tragic accident that occurred.” Isn’t that similar to a Football player dying of a head injury after colliding with an opposing player?

So the fact that wrestler plots are predetermined and the moves are choreographed doesn’t make it a sport? If competition is affiliated with it, then it’s a sport, just like a football coach going to the drawing board to talk to his team about plans to beat the other team?

Like Ed Grabianowki said, “Simply calling wrestling ‘fake’ is like calling a action movie fake.” In other words, if it entertains you, and it affects fans when their favorite wrestlers get injured or die performing the wrestling moves then professional wrestling is a sport.